Week 1 Lecture Transcript

Justin Molocznik

Absolutely. Thank you, Daphne. It's a pleasure to speak with your students.

Justin Molocznik

Absolutely. So JTM is a general contractor located in Seattle, Washington. It was actually three individuals who broke off from a larger organization, had some really great and innovative ideas on how to complete construction up in this region, and decided to start their own general contractor. And they've been going strong for 16 plus years now and currently sits at about 150 employees. The area work that they're primarily focused on -- shouldn't say they -- that we are primarily focused on is high rises.

So we do a lot of work. If students are familiar with the Pacific Northwest and the Seattle area, you can look at Seattle and Bellevue, and it's kind of a conglomerate of buildings and high rises. And that's the area that we work in. So about 150 employees like I said. If you wanted to talk specifically about our health and safety group, we're about seven individuals strong. So how we keep things structured is with myself as the health and safety director.

I have an assistant safety director that helps me manage our team. And we have a health and safety manager that is put to each specific job site, each project that we're working on. And then, of course, what we're trying to do is we work with local schools and organizations. We bring on a safety engineer. So we have a few safety engineers within our organization to develop them into the next level of safety leaders within JTM.

Justin Molocznik

Definitely. And I think it's really important to remember that there was a time when safety wasn't a priority. And the reason that regulation was created, was put in place to regulate those employers who didn't see the priority there or the importance of protecting employees. So there was a time before regulation where individuals would go to work, leave their families, and not know if they were going to come home at the end of the day.

Kind of scary, and I think for a lot of us in the safety field now, we recognize that is almost -- you can't even comprehend that happening or being a reality. But it is. And it was. And we live in a different time now where we look at regulation a little bit differently because organizations have taken the responsibility, not just because of regulation, but because it's morally important and right, and it's the right thing to do.

And it's also good business to keep your organization going. There are a lot of different costs that can be associated with injuries, both tangible and intangible. And then it's the well-being of the workers, too. If they have an unsafe work environment, that can impact a lot of different things. I would suggest that if students have an opportunity, check out the story behind Alcoa and Paul O'Neill and how it's good business and it shows that good business comes from focusing on safety and championing that.

So really it can come down to the bottom line, Worker's Comp dollars, hidden costs of injuries. There's a lot of different things that can impact the financial portion of an organization when it comes to injuries or unsafe work environments. And then on the personal side, on the psychological side, you talk about employee retention, people don't want to work in an organization where they don't feel safe. And that goes back to the employer to create that environment.

So creating a safe environment, creating an environment which create psychological safety for individuals, and that just is a circumstance where people feel safe to speak up if they have concerns. And an environment that is a term I'm sure as your students go through or maybe heard it before, psychological safety is talked a lot about now. Not just in the health and safety industry, but kind of universally as far as a workplace that people want to be in. And I think part of your question too was talking about what happens if employers don't put an emphasis on safety.

And that could be detrimental, absolutely. All those good things that we talked about, if you pull those away, all of a sudden you're going to have a really hard time doing business, even if you do have the dollars. It's going to be really hard to keep employee retention, keep people around. And so it's incredibly important. I'm very passionate about it. And I don't think I started the conversation with that there was a time where it wasn't a priority.

It's not as hard of a sell anymore because leaders recognize it as well.

Justin Molocznik

Yeah, and for those individuals who are, you know, getting into the safety profession, it almost feels obvious, you know? Right and wrong, you know? Keeping employees safe versus not keeping them safe. It's right versus wrong. But, you know a lot of times, health and safety professionals, we don't run the company. We're not looking necessarily at the bottom line all the time and making those decisions around those things.

We have to champion the safety effort, and make sure that people when they're making the decisions around where we're going to put our money. Are we going to put it in a preventative, proactive measure, or are we going to put out money in cleaning up after an incident has happened. It's making sure that you're selling and understanding as a safety professional that you have to have those conversations, and you have to make that argument with leadership sometimes. Because it may not be that they don't see the moral value, but they be caught up in the dollar value of what you're talking about.

And really, as a safety professional, it's the conversations that are had with leadership, because the leaders are the ones that create the environment. They're going to drive the safety culture. You, as a safety professional can get on your hilltop and cheer until you're blue in the face about it. But if your leaders within an organization don't understand the importance of safety, the culture isn't going to go anywhere.

They're the ones that set that expectation, that precedence, which filters down to, say construction onto the job site creating a safety climate that people are feeling good in. So it's definitely well beyond regulation at this point. And when you think about the ethical piece of it, you can throw the regulation side out of it. Sure, we're meeting all the OSHA regulations here in the state of Washington, its labor and industry, but it's more of a certainly a moral compass that has to be righted sometimes with your leadership so they understand that.

The decisions they make and the communication they have impact each and every one of their workers.

Justin Molocznik

Yeah, absolutely. What a great organization to a part of the ASSP. It's about 38,000 members strong, which is phenomenal network to be in if you're a safety professional. And I believe they just did a survey with all the members and came back, you know, what's the greatest value you can get out of this organization. And the number one value is networking. That's what people want and that's what people are looking to do.

It's not only individuals maybe who are seeking information, seeking different ideas, but also seeking employment. And there are employers that are involved with the ASSP as well. So absolutely wonderful resource to get industry-leading information, gain leadership skills, tapping into a massive network. And I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the Professional Safety Journal, which I'm actually on the editorial review board currently.

This magazine here is going to have just a whole lot of information on current issues that we're facing in the safety industry, and it's going to be of great value to you. So if I've done my sales pitch ASSP absolutely a must for safety professionals.

Justin Molocznik

Absolutely, We're really excited for your students. Safety is a rewarding profession. I wish them the best of luck in however they decide to navigate their careers.